Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday Set for December 18 Box-Office Showdown
- Dune: Part Three and Avengers: Doomsday are both releasing on December 18, neither studio has moved its date after the trailer drop
- Dune: Part Three locked up three weeks of Imax exclusivity, prompting Marvel to launch a rival premium format label called Infinity Vision, which several commentators dismissed as just marketing
- Analysts expect Doomsday to beat Dune: Part Three in opening weekend, with Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations saying Marvel wants $200M-plus to call it a success
- Robert Downey Jr. is reportedly being paid $100M total for Doomsday and its 2026 sequel Secret Wars, and Bock says the franchise's $2B-$2.8B Endgame-era numbers are out of reach for the new film
- Doomsday has been rescheduled twice and was originally a different film called The Kang Dynasty before Jonathan Majors was fired, following a writers' strike and a costly creative overhaul